Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala State Government's much-vaunted biometric punching system had a false start with only Palakkad and Ernakulam collectorates implementing it on Tuesday.

Aimed to detect the late arrivals and early leaving of employees, the plan was to start the system on the first working day of the year.

The failure was due to a technical glitch that prevented the biometric system from syncing with the Service and Payroll Administrative Repository or SPARK, Manorama News reported.

SPARK is the integrated payroll and accounts information system that calculates salary of every government employee in the state.

As per the plan, biometric system will be ontroduced in all semi-government, local self government and institutions receiving government grant, before March 31 this year.

Chief Secretary V P Joy issued a directive in this regard two weeks ago.

In the pipeline 

Though the measure, aimed at preventing employees from leaving the office during working hours, was proposed to be implemented several times, the same couldn’t be done so far due to the interference of employee organizations.

Currently, the biometric punching system is efficiently functioning only at the Kerala Government Secretariat.

Access control at Secretariat
An access control system will be introduced in the Secretariat from this week in a move aimed at monitoring and restricting the movements of employees and visitors.

One can enter or leave the building only by swiping cards at the entry points. If an employee leaves the office during working hours, he/she will lose the salary.

From January 4, in Thiruvananthapuram Corporation
As Tuesday is also a holiday in the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation limits due to Beemapally Uroos, the biometric system will begin in the offices in this area only from January 4.

Schools, colleges and police stations excluded
Government institutions like schools, colleges and police stations will not be included in the first phase of the implementation of the biometric punching system.

The above-mentioned institutions are not covered as of now in the biometric punching system and a decision will be taken in their case only later.

“The punching system won’t be introduced in small government offices, where there are comparatively lesser number of staff, in the first phase. A decision on which all offices should be included will be taken only after considering the financial liability of installing the equipment,” sources said.